ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan Monday said that the COVID-19 case positivity ratio has become doubled in the past few days reaching 10% in the country.

In a media briefing, Dr Faisal said that the case positivity ratio was also high in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir while over 4,000 corona patients were admitted to intensive care units of various hospitals.

He said that even in peak time the figure of corona patients in ICU was around 3,000 which shows the increasing trend of the disease and its complications in its third wave. He added this disease expansion had caused a burden on the country’s health system.

He said that Covid-19 cases were jumping up for the past few weeks and it was observed that citizens were not following corona Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) properly since the start of April. He urged the citizens to strictly follow COVID-19 SoPs to prevent the disease in the wake of a sudden increase in the number of infections in the country.

He also appealed to the religious scholars to play their role in educating people during the holy month of Ramazan for adopting special preventive measures as only 50% of corona SOPs observance was noted due to which there was immense pressure on healthcare workers.

He said that many hotels and restaurants were violating the corona SOPs besides public transports while citizens were avoiding to use face masks, which is quite alarming.

“We regularly monitor positivity ratio at national, provincial and city level and when it increases it incurs burden on healthcare capacity. Pressure is mounting in the major urban centers of Punjab and federal capital.”

He said that keeping in view the disease risk certain restrictions were imposed focusing on high-risk sectors with mass gathering, however, he said that an overall weak administrative compliance of guidelines and actions was seen and requested all provincial administrations to seriously take note of this.

He said that this time is not of any complacency rather strict compliance of SOPs. “COVID-19 is a deadly virus but we can control it just as we controlled it by following the SoPs during the previous waves.”

Dr Faisal said that the government was seeking full cooperation of the citizens in adhering to the SoPs. “We can save precious lives including those of our near and dear ones by taking preventive measures.” He asked the citizens to wear a mask, maintain social distance, wash hands with soap frequently and avoid crowded places.

He asked the citizens above 50 years to register for corona vaccination to protect themselves as well as their loved ones. He said that better services were being ensured at COVID-19 vaccination centers to facilitate the senior citizens.

He said that senior citizens walk-in registration was introduced for above 70 years of age citizens and now they can visit for vaccination from all listed vaccination centers.